Wayfaring Stranger

Trad

Intro: Am

I am a [Am]poor wayfaring stranger

While travelling [Dm]through this world of [Am]woe

Yet there’s no sickness, toil or danger

 In that [Dm]bright world to which I  [Am]go.

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Chorus:

I’m going [C]there to [F]see my [C]father (mother)

I’m going [F]there, [C]no more to [G]roam [E7]

I’m only [Am]going over Jordan

Only [D]go-ing [E7]over [Am]home.

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I know that dark clouds will gather ’round me

I know my way is rough and steep

Yet beautious fields lie just before me

Where God’s re-deeming their vigils keep.

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Chorus

Repeat verse 1

Chorus

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According to the book, The Makers of the Sacred Harp, by David Warren Steel and Richard H. Hulan, the lyrics were published in 1858 in Joseph Bever’s Christian Songster, which was a collection of popular hymns and spiritual songs of the time.This may or may not have been the first time the song appeared in English print, and the songwriter is unknown. Steel and Hulan suggest the song was derived from an 1816 German hymn, ”Ich bin ein Gast auf Erden” by Isaac Niswander.